In the early seventies a few brave souls jumped gear that scared your average jumper. Some of it was perfectly legal, but you had to be a "manly" man to jump it.

We had a couple guys in our club who jumped rigs like that. I used to get scared just looking at them. I think both of those guys, are now both deceased. Jeez, I wonder why?

There was no messing around with these guys. I think their motto in life, was "No guts, no glory"!

In my mind's eye, a death rig, might have been a pig rig, with one shot cape wells. Complete with Jesus cord, and blast handle. Inside might have been a para-plane. A 24 foot-round-reserve might have topped off their back pack.

I seem to remember a photo of of Airtwardo wearing a rig just like that.....Like I said, if you were really really good, you could survive jumping a death rig, on a regular basis.

In my mind's eye, a death rig, might have been a pig rig, with one shot cape wells. Complete with Jesus cord, and blast handle. Inside might have been a para-plane. A 24 foot-round-reserve might have topped off their back pack.

Sounds like the rig my Para-Plane is in, except the blast handle. I jump it and there is nothing wrong with it. I still don't like the way the Para-Plane packs. Too many straps and ropes strangling other things. The canopy once out of the bag isn't so bad.

Dead Dugan use to run his chest strap through his main ripcord handle, so it didn't get snatched on speed star exits. The super pro curved chest reserve would total. You had to pull the top flap by hand to open it or put a jesus string from the ripcord to the top flap. Army team jumped those. Tri-con reserve. Volplane in the winter with the hydraulic opener. And my favorite. A German photographer that put his pilot chute in his pants pocket, through a hole in his jump suit.

The Volplane just needs it release screw adjusted and it will operate fine in the winter. I know some people say that the oil had to be changed to a different weight but it really isn't necessary as you could get it to release sooner. I have jumped mine plenty of times in the winter and it always works great with the right adjustment.

In the early seventies a few brave souls jumped gear that scared your average jumper. Some of it was perfectly legal, but you had to be a "manly" man to jump it.

We had a couple guys in our club who jumped rigs like that. I used to get scared just looking at them. I think both of those guys, are now both deceased. Jeez, I wonder why?

There was no messing around with these guys. I think their motto in life, was "No guts, no glory"!

In my mind's eye, a death rig, might have been a pig rig, with one shot cape wells. Complete with Jesus cord, and blast handle. Inside might have been a para-plane. A 24 foot-round-reserve might have topped off their back pack.

I seem to remember a photo of of Airtwardo wearing a rig just like that.....Like I said, if you were really really good, you could survive jumping a death rig, on a regular basis.

Mine had a tri-con in it, WITH the reinforcing bands...speakin' of 'bands', couple of rubber-bands on the ripcord was quite a help...wouldn't lose it in a function.

Ya needed 4 hands...two to cut away, one on the reserve handle and another yankin' the 'last-hope-rope' that's Jesus cord to you left coasters.

Sounds like the rig my Para-Plane is in, except the blast handle. I jump it and there is nothing wrong with it. I still don't like the way the Para-Plane packs. Too many straps and ropes strangling other things. The canopy once out of the bag isn't so bad. When para-planes first came out, I was in awe. Then I heard that Wally Benton broke his back on one down at Boise. I think he was doing a demo into a football game, and made a wild turn.

I've only jumped one a couple times. The one in our club would malfunction about once every ten jumps. Maybe it was because it was being packed wrong.

On landing we were afraid to flare it out early, so we usually dug up a bunch of dirt on landing the thing. Yep, para-planes were scary in my book.

In the good old days a death rig was an old rig that today's riggers would have looked at (at that time) and said, "Not at this DZ, not in this plane." For whatever reason. When I first started, I took a reserve to PI at Lakewood, a 24-foot unsteerable twill, and the rigger refused to pack it because it wouldn't pass a tension test. He told me it could blow up on a terminal opening. Not sure if he was hyping -- buy a new one here, but I took it back before I could test his theory. That was a death rig, possibly, and I didn't know it. Yeah, we all jumped with sinkers and rubber bands just in front of the last pin on three-pin and four-pin containers so we wouldn't lose a ripcord on a malfunction. Then somebody went in because their handle wrapped itself in the lower suspension lines of his reserve, and then, well, we all took off the sinkers and rubber bands. Those were death rigs, too, and nobody knew it until somebody died.

Owned one of those. My first PC and 26 ft navy. Guy went in. I had about 50 jumps and the big discussion at the DZ was how long to wait to ask the widow if I could buy his gear. Three days after the funeral for $75 I had a B12 with a RWB PC. Two colors of red and a smashed altimeter.

The Volplane just needs it release screw adjusted and it will operate fine in the winter. I know some people say that the oil had to be changed to a different weight but it really isn't necessary as you could get it to release sooner. I have jumped mine plenty of times in the winter and it always works great with the right adjustment.

Hi Beatnick

You probably have more jumps on the voplane than a lot of folks jumping almost back in the day.

There was so much new stuff coming out around then lots of folks only had one rig and people didn't have the time to screw with it,

We were jumping at Ft Rily Ks in the winter snow on the ground the chopper pilot was handing out orange panels in case someone had a mal so he could find us. For some reason a lot of reserves where white.

Watched a guy land his volplane. He was in a rush to get back to the packing area (outside) to try and get packed for the next load.Sliped on the ice rushing back to the packing area.

Owned one of those. My first PC and 26 ft navy. Guy went in. I had about 50 jumps and the big discussion at the DZ was how long to wait to ask the widow if I could buy his gear. Three days after the funeral for $75 I had a B12 with a RWB PC. Two colors of red and a smashed altimeter.

One day i opened very low by the time I walked back to the DZ my roomate s had my gear, car etc already spilt up.

A widow gave me a couple of her husbands of jumpsuits for free after her husband died of cancer. One was for falling slow the other fit like a glove for falliing fast.

People would ask where I got the jumpsuit. "Off a dead guy" Some thought I got it after he went in.

Lots of people were lurking inexpensive used gear. It was almost a std joke if you die can I have your gear. Just the way it was.

Steve: What was the lowest temp you guy's were jumping in the big sky country in the winter.?

In Ks the weather usually wasn't that cold and we could dress for sucess .

Except holdong onto the toggles (broom handle) over our head was a challenge due to poor blood flow due to our hands held over our head.

Found the best thing to do was to turn downwind back to the DZ or try and hold into the wind then put out hands under our armpits for a while then turrn into the wind and get ready for the landing.

Landing with stinging hands wasn't fun But we still packed up outside for the next load.. maybe take a break in the car to take off the chill drink sone hot coco, tea or coffee. get on the net load.

Std. B4 container, Adjustable to fit crew 5' to 6' +. It'd loosen up over time. Meaning, you'd want to keep your arms down on opening to stay in. My reserve D-rings were hand-sewn to the outside of the harness. Single shot capewells... floating ripcord swedged. Hand-soldered center-pull ripcord on the reserve. Only tried to use it once. Demo jump. Cut away at about 1,500' AGL. Got open about 100' AGL. Soldered reserve ripcord pins bellmouthed on hard yank. Rice field saved my life. Spectating Aunt was not happy. That was the only time I heard her curse fluently. . . . Yes, the ground gets BIG when you get low.

Home made reserve kicker plates were my favorite..........allowed the shitty ma1 to find its way out of the container.....(spawnded poptops too)..........one was a cardboard picnic plate , worked ok , the other was the lid off a tin that that had been hacked open with an old fashioned opener............serrated edges burrowed in to your reserve beautifully. Kicker plates were the 1st bullshit detector ever made ..........If your kicker plate landed under the tree you were hanging under your reserve in you were LOW ........200 metres away and you were'nt........ so tell the truth

In my mind's eye, a death rig, might have been a pig rig, with one shot cape wells. Complete with Jesus cord, and blast handle. Inside might have been a para-plane. A 24 foot-round-reserve might have topped off their back pack.

OMG! You just described my second rig! Well, other than the fact that it had a PARADACTYL instead of a Para Plane! But the reserve was, indeed, a 24' flat.

Today, I wouldn't jump that rig for anything! Reserve ripcord was HARD to get out.

hmmmm almost looked like THIS one... see attachment. (disregard incorrect wording on the pic. ) it's a picture of Yours truly, wearing an early vintage, locally made piggyback which many of us were using...mid 70s ( The TSO is "due any day Now" )

Well first of all i nearly killed myself when i twisted the bellyband, went on an 8 way... pulled low, and because of the twist, Had a P C I T ...The PC pulled shear through the twist , extracting the main pin, and yanking about 3 feet of crown lines from my French Papillon up into the twist. The bag came out... but stayed closed.... i was momentarily head down AND feet down,,, and spinning... and sensed that i was suspended from my waist.. I snatched at the bridle thinking it was caught on a buckle.. and then took a look DOWN !!!!! Whooooaaaa... I was right OVER the pea gravel and it looked BIG !!!. like as big as when we set up for final during an accuracy run... OH MY !!!!! I didn't wanna just pour out my reserve so i got Flat and stable and FELT the main D bag drop down and HIT me on the back of the legs!!.. i thought to myself..."Right NOW" !!!and i fired the blasthandle ..... BAng!!! open reserve ! i was around 700 feet... it was only after landing that i found i had twisted the harness and never caught it... That night we stitched a plastic stiffener into bellyband to make a twist much more evident, in the future...

BUTTTTTTT i guess that rig was NOT done trying to OFF me..... because a year or so later i did a H & P solo... where i did 2 backloops off the step. I pulled, got a normal open canopy and completed my descent... The R 3s (which as many of you know, consisted of some of the metal parts from a capewell and some webbing, and some eleastic and some velcro...) well the R3 on my right side..... Disconnected !!! upon my landing, and the riser Literally "ka-chink"!!!!! came off IN my HAnd,,, just as i touched down. !!!!! go figure !!!

Yup. "flaring" was ONLY for the ram airs... and with a round, in any sorta wind,, we would Never pull both toggles to our knees!!!. instead we would fly wide open Into the wind, and then at touchdown, grab our rear risers and do a "chip -up" to "lessen the impact" of the landing rate of descent.... anyway, this time i was left standing there with a handful of riser!!!! whoa... must be that the fork from the release, which slid up to hold the lug of the riser hardware had enough tension throught the descent,,, that it stayed in place... until i Unloaded it by landing.....real glad it didn't let go BEFORE then... got a wonderhog with 3 rings, not too long thereafter...

Steve: What was the lowest temp you guy's were jumping in the big sky country in the winter.? We were young and tough, in the 70's. We'd jump all winter, at Missoula. I don't remember anybody getting frost bit, but I'll bet that happened. On a couple jumps it was almost down to zero, Fahrenheit. That added up to quite a chill factor.

My gosh, you guys have some scary stories.

Maybe the true meaning of a death rig is one that someone went in on. Jumping a rig like that, would be "hard core" to say the least. I'll bet that gear would sell cheap!.... I'm not sure how long you'd want to wait, before asking to buy a rig like that.....

A death rig always had bad bungees with hooks that had half-opened, so that the bungees were always hanging out free. It had a plastic (the shatterable kind) ripcord handle. It had a non-pilot-chuted reserve (I was trained on cutaways). It had a hard pull, and a ripcord stop (though those had ended before I started jumping). Probably the raggediest cheapo ever, with the lines within the canopy either removed or gutted for weight and bulk. The owner had a motorcycle helmet in which the gasket around the face had fallen off. It was dirty, with scuffs and a hole in the backpack. The reserve was an unmodified 24' flat round, preferably twill.

Basically, it showed no signs whatsoever of maintenance, or care, or attention to anything besides cheap and/or weight.

We were young and tough, back in the 70's. We'd jump all winter. I don't remember anybody getting frost bit, but I'll bet that happened. I remember a couple jumps when it was almost down to zero, Fahrenheit. That added up to quite a chill factor.

My gosh, you guys have some scary stories.

Maybe a true death rig is one that someone went in on. Jumping a rig like that, would be "hard core" to say the least. I'll bet a rig like that would sell cheap!.... Hi Steve

But but I thought jumping was a seasonal sport.

Have a friend who used to jump in ND at a small club. Year round. Met him and his buddy in Fl many yr's later and they were about the club mtg that almost ended up .

Some members wanted a pea gravel pit and some others wanted a inflight door. Accuracy was still king in the mid 60's.

The

Quote:

death rig

might sell cheap to the first person that bought it. After it changed hands a couple of times or was parted out.

It wasn't as inexpensive as it started & It wasn't a death rig anymore.

Not my style, but we heard rumors.

Got a nice used Bunny helmet for free that had a $.50 size spot of red on the inside. Who knows they could have cut themselves shaving.

Remember those pilot chutes that had about two million jumps on them. Some of them didn't have much spring left. You'd pull, then wait and wait for the pilot chute to clear your burble......Hoping it didn't snag on a bungie that wouldn't stay hooked up.

What we would have given for a modern day pilot chute, that will jump clear across the room when you pull the rip cord.

A death rig always had bad bungees with hooks that had half-opened, so that the bungees were always hanging out free. It had a plastic (the shatterable kind) ripcord handle. It had a non-pilot-chuted reserve (I was trained on cutaways). It had a hard pull, and a ripcord stop (though those had ended before I started jumping). Probably the raggediest cheapo ever, with the lines within the canopy either removed or gutted for weight and bulk. The owner had a motorcycle helmet in which the gasket around the face had fallen off. It was dirty, with scuffs and a hole in the backpack. The reserve was an unmodified 24' flat round, preferably twill.

Basically, it showed no signs whatsoever of maintenance, or care, or attention to anything besides cheap and/or weight.

Wendy P.

But when jumped...it not only USUALLY worked ~ it was ALWAYS fun to watch!